False alarm holds up 150 trains

Thousands of commuters were delayed today when a pregnant woman on a rush-hour train thought her baby was arriving prematurely.

The 27-year-old, who is six months pregnant, experienced contractions as she travelled on the packed train from Dartford to London Bridge. As the contractions gathered pace, she contacted the driver via the intercom. He in turn alerted a nurse on standby at London Bridge. A team of London Ambulance Service paramedics arrived and transferred the woman to Guy's Hospital, where her contractions stopped.

The false alarm led to chaos across the rail network. About 1,000 passengers due to continue on the same train to Charing Cross had to disembark. As the woman was tended on the train for up to 35 minutes, more than 10,000 passengers on at least 70 other trains were disrupted as they were unable to use the same route. The knock-on effect is thought to have affected about 150 trains altogether.

Brian Brennan, Connex station manager at London Bridge, said: "It certainly makes a change for something like this to cause delays. The lady arrived at London Bridge shortly before 8am and she remained reasonably calm. The train was quite packed and it was a bit of a drama. When our nurse saw her, she said there was no way the lady could leave the train as the contractions were too close, so London Ambulance Service were called."

As the train was delayed at London Bridge itself - the busiest multi-track terminal in London - scores of other routes were also affected and passengers across the network experienced delays of at least 20 minutes.

A Connex spokesman said: "We're talking about around 150 trains being affected at London Bridge. We have around 122,000 people coming into central London every morning. It's not the type of thing that happens every day although there have been similar stories. But it is certainly unusual for a woman to start giving birth on a train."

Meanwhile, commuters faced further delays caused by heavy leaf fall and dew on the tracks, according to rail chiefs.

The large number of leaves and poor weather conditions are conspiring to create "low adhesion" problems on the line, said Railtrack bosses, who issued a warning to operators today to expect further delays.

A Connex spokesman said: "It's often reported as just leaves on the lines but it's not that simple. It's drizzling and this combines with sap that comes out of the trees and causes problems. There are other factors as well such as the temperature and morning dew."